Library › Origen › Exhortation to Martyrdom

Exhortation to Martyrdom

Origen, tr. O’Meara, 1954

d1

As neither of the works in this volume is the first or most important of the writings of Origen, a bare outline of the author’s career will suffice.

He was born in Egypt, probably at Alexandria, about 185 A. D. of parents for whom the ideals and practice of Christianity were the only concern in life. Accordingly he was baptized at an early age and soon received in addition to the ordinary schooling of the time a special direction towards the study of the Bible which made an all-pervading impression on him throughout his life. When he was seventeen years of age, in 202 A. D., his father Leonidas suffered martyrdom under Septimius Severus—a fate, or rather vocation, which Origen himself did his best to achieve and for which he always thirsted. In the meantime, however, he became responsible for the support of his mother and six younger brothers. At first a wealthy woman came to their help; but shortly Origen was himself able to maintain his family with the earnings from his profession as a teacher.

About the year 203 he was invited to take charge at Alexandria of a catechetical school for elementary instruction in the rudiments of Christianity.¹ With characteristic zeal and impetuosity he not only gave up immediately his secular teaching, but also sold all his secular books and devoted himself forthwith to a most intense study of Scripture and the instruction of such as sought his aid. Since in the circumstances to become a Christian was to court death, his instruction took on the character of a preparation for martyrdom. His own life at this time was one of unremitting toil, danger, and austerity—an austerity too great (as later he was to admit), for he acted literally on the words of the Gospel: There are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven.²

His school developed to such an extent that he found it necessary about 215 A. D. to assign the elementary work to his pupil Heraclas and embark upon advanced teaching himself. This involved him in the study of pagan authors at the highest level, and soon pagans as well as Christians were flocking to him for instruction, whether in rhetoric, philosophy, or Scriptural exegesis. His presence also was in great demand everywhere, and he made numerous journeys at this period, to Rome, to visit the Governor of Arabia, and even to see the Emperor’s mother, Julia Mamaea, at Antioch. He began, too, with the encouragement and generous material help of his friend and convert from Valentinianism, Ambrose,³ to publish exegetical works—the first five books of his Commentary on St. John, the first eight books of his Commentary on Genesis (no longer extant), his Commentary on the First Twenty-five Psalms (of which only fragments survive), and his most important single work, the theological treatise De Principiis.

Suddenly all this work was rudely interrupted. Origen, a layman, had a specific function in the Church of that time—to teach. He was a didaskalos.⁴ The office of the priest on the other hand was to administer the sacraments. A certain rivalry existed therefore between the priests and the didaskaloi, which disappeared only when both functions were united in the office of the priest. This kind of rivalry must have been growing between Origen and his bishop, Demetrius. It became aggravated when, in the course of a visit to Caesarea, Origen, at the express invitation of the local bishops and in full accordance with the local custom, preached to a congregation in the church. When, however, in 230 A. D. Origen accepted ordination to the priesthood in Palestine, outside his bishop’s jurisdiction and without his permission, Demetrius called a synod and expelled him from the church of Alexandria. The bishops of Jerusalem and Caesarea were happy to receive him, and for the rest of his days he continued at Caesarea the work that he had begun at Alexandria.

It was during this later period of his life that he wrote both the treatise on Prayer and the Exhortation to Martyrdom. In addition he wrote, among other works, the Hexapla, embodying his lifelong efforts to establish a critical text of the Old Testament, and the celebrated Christian apology, the Contra Celsum. He was also in communication with many of the world’s notabilities, including the emperor, Philip of Arabia. But his chief occupation during all this time was the almost daily exposition of Scripture in the church of Caesarea. His words were taken down and published as Homilies, a great number of which have come down to us in Latin translations. For him the words of Scripture were living in the fullest sense: they spoke to him who attuned himself to their message. Hence to preach was for him to pray aloud—to hold himself sensitive to the inspiration of the Word, and to pass on that inspiration to his hearers.

Origen died at Tyre in 253 A. D. shortly after the persecution of Decius who became emperor in 249 A. D. Although we do not know if his great desire to be a martyr was realized, we do know that he suffered most severely in the persecution.

He was a man of such zeal for God and His Church; so dead to the things of this world and so alive to the things of the spirit; so completely absorbed in the study of the Scriptures, that he was sometimes guilty of indiscretion; often tended to underrate the relative value of material things; and too often exaggerated the importance of the word of Scripture at the expense of reality. This is seen, for example, in the treatise on Prayer in his treatment of the petition: Give us this day our supersubstantial bread.⁵ Although he does clearly say, as elsewhere, that the Eucharist is truly the Word of God and the proper nourishment for our souls, he nevertheless, again as elsewhere, seems to attach greater importance to the food for our souls which is the word of Holy Scripture. …⁶ These ideas derive partly from his office of didaskalos, but to a great extent also from his too ardent spirit.

It must not be thought that Origen was a disloyal son of the Church. Although his errors were attacked again and again and solemnly condemned especially by the Fifth Oecumenical Council at Constantinople in 553, Origen himself was never formally declared to be a heretic. It is true that he seems sometimes to subordinate the Second to the First Person of the Trinity,⁷ and gives expression to other dangerous doctrines, such as the pre-existence of the soul,⁸ metempsychosis⁹ (the theory of a cycle of existences) and apocatastasis¹⁰ (the view that all, even Satan, will in the end be saved). It must be remembered, however, in the first place, that by intention, practice, and profession he was always a most loyal son of the Church,¹¹ and secondly that he lived at a time when Church doctrine was in the course of being defined: indeed he more than anyone of his time helped towards its definition. Hence there has always been sympathy for him and it has been well said that “there has been no truly great man in the Church who did not love him a little.”¹² Among such men were St. Jerome, who said that Origen was “a teacher of the Church second only to the Apostle,”¹³ and Erasmus who declared that one page of Origen taught him more Christian philosophy than ten of Augustine.¹⁴ In recent times there has been a notable revival of interest in this single-minded and generous man, who united in himself at once great industry, great genius, and even greater sanctity.

The question as to Origen’s relations with Neo-Platonism hardly comes up for discussion in connection with the works in this volume. It will be sufficient to say here that the present writer does not accept as proved the thesis of R. Cadiou in his La jeunesse d’Origène (Paris 1935), as to the identity of our author with the Origen of the Life of Plotinus by Porphyry. The presence of Neo-Platonic ideas can easily be accounted for without the supposition of such an identity.¹⁵

Our ancient sources of information on Origen’s life are the sixth book of Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History; the first book of Eusebius’ and Pamphilus’ Apology for Origen, known to us in Rufinus’ Latin translation; and finally a tribute to his master by Gregory of Neo-Caesarea.¹⁶ Apart from the usual reference books and encyclopedias, there is a considerable amount of modern literature dealing with Origen and his works.¹⁷ Perhaps the most helpful is the study by J. Daniélou, Origène (Paris 1948).

Contents · Next